Dublin

What was once a three-night stay would now be one. Thanks to the volcano, we decided Dublin would take the largest hit. We’re also skipping a night in southern Ireland and one in the west. Not bad though in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, we arrived early on Saturday, too early for a check-in at the hotel. So we headed for the one sight we knew how to find, the one sight where parking with our rental car would not be a problem, a sight where we knew we could leisurely kill some time…the Guinness Brewery. Guinness started brewing beer in Dublin over 250 years ago and today pumps out about 10 million pints every day from a sprawling complex downtown. The tour finishes on the top floor of the visitor’s center in the “Gravity Bar”. It’s a great spot, high enough to give you a perfect panoramic of the whole city. And it’s here of course that you finish with your free pint of Guinness. But keep in mind, while it may be 12:30 in the afternoon in Dublin, we just stepped off the plane and it’s 6:30am Chicago time (with no sleep all night). What better time for a Guinness though? A toast to our new adventures!

The River Liffey cuts the town in two, and after our visit to Guinness, we hopped to the other side to find our hotel. Overall we found the city to be a bit gritty, although it has certainly come a long way in recent years.

Worn out from the travel, Cole and I left the girls to rest and headed for the local stadium, Croke Park for some football. If you mention football in most of Europe it means soccer, but in Ireland, football means Gaelic Football. Gaelic Football and Hurling are the national sports and everyone is very passionate about them. In fact Croke Park holds about 90,000 fans, claiming to be the third largest sports stadium in all of Europe. On this night though, it was two teams (Limerick and Waterford) from a lower class and they only opened one side of the stadium. You’ll notice this in my photos, as the stands in the background are empty. If you’re not familiar with Gaelic Football, it’s sort of a rugged version of soccer. You can carry the ball, but if you do you need to bounce it or kick it to yourself every third step. Each endzone has a goal post (like American football) under which you'll find a traditional soccer goal. It’s three points for a goal and one point to get it through the uprights. We saw a great game that came down to the final minute with Limerick winning 19-17. One of the cool things about these sports is they can fill a 90,000 seat stadium with fans paying 20 to 30 euros each, and the players are all amateurs. In fact most hold second jobs, while the ticket revenue goes towards children leagues, school programs and municipal stadium facilities.

In the morning we made our way to the Temple Bar district for brunch. This area is the epicenter of activity, and especially known for its pub scene in the evening. Our mission though was to meet up with Angie’s friend Marcus and his wife Rachel. Angie has known Marcus since she studied in England, some 20 years ago during college. He’s a Dublin native, and like every other Irishman we’ve met, full of crazy stories and more than willing to sit and bend your ear.

Our stay in Dublin was definitely a bit short, but Ireland is more about the countryside. So after a little more strolling around, it was time to load up and head for the coast.

Mia's before and after picture from the Guinness factory.

The Staehlings vs. The Volcano

Who would have thought a volcano could delay our trip? Are you kidding? When they first announced that a volcano was interrupting flights last week, I thought no big deal; our trip is still 4 days away. But as the days went by, so did our departure. After our Monday flight was officially cancelled, we were promptly booked on the next available flight. Not Tuesday, not Wednesday, but Sunday, six days later. That was a bit deflating as I started to work on cancelling accommodations. What made things worse was that our new departure was certainly no sure thing either. After things started returning to normal though, I began keeping an eye on things with American (Airlines). And sure enough, I found just enough seats open up for a Friday departure. All of a sudden we were packing again. When we got to the airport though, Ella started complaining of a stomach-ache and needing to use the restroom often. She started complaining of the stomach-ache a few days earlier, but we never connected the dots. All of a sudden we’re standing in O’Hare and it makes sense now - she has a bladder infection! Perfect timing of course. After making another emergency bathroom stop we find out that there’s a clinic in the airport. So off we went, and sixty minutes later we’re heading for our plane with a new bottle of antibiotics. Things were starting to come together, although we were still nervous we’d hear an announcement that the “ash cloud” had returned. We managed to take-off however, and eight hours later find ourselves landing in Dublin. Was it Luck of the Irish?

You’ll notice in the photo above that we learned a thing or two from our first trip. Even though we’re gone for 3 months this time, we’ve managed to pack a lot lighter compared to the luggage from our trip in 2008 (photo below).